MTA to Cut Security on West Valley Bus Lines : Transit: All officers monitoring the area’s routes are being reassigned to the South Bay’s new Green Line, official says.

Transit police will be stripped from all West Valley bus lines and transferred to the new Metro Green Line route in the South Bay within the next three weeks, a transit official said.

Because of budget cuts, MTA Police Chief Sharon K. Papa said she has no choice but to reassign the nine West Valley officers, who are needed less urgently there than elsewhere.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority board postponed action on a measure that would have halted the transfer while still ensuring a board-mandated 56 officers for the Aug. 12 opening of the Redondo Beach-Norwalk Metro Green Line.

Although the measure, proposed by board member and City Councilman Richard Alatorre, will be taken up again next month, Papa said she cannot wait.

“More than likely, they are going to get pulled real soon,” Papa said during a break in the MTA board’s proceedings.

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Laura Chick, who represents the West Valley and who had tried to rally support from the mayor and the other council members for the Alatorre measure, said the move is unacceptable.

“Nobody is going to convince me that we don’t have a need for security in the San Fernando Valley,” Chick said. “The message the MTA is sending to the San Fernando Valley is that you’re a part of the world we don’t care about.”

The MTA voted last month to trim $2 million from its $36-million transit police budget and not fill 54 vacant positions.

The Alatorre proposal would have restored funding for some of those positions and frozen various administrative positions and budget increases in their place--an idea opposed by the MTA staff.

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The board voted to reconsider the measure again next month when Alatorre, who was out of town on Wednesday, returns.

Papa said the board has required her to have a full staff of 56 officers in place when the new Metro Green Line opens next month. The 20-mile electric trolley system will run along the Century Freeway median.

Her decision to take reinforcements from the West Valley, she said, was based on its low number of calls for police assistance.

Papa said the Valley will retain a transit police substation in the Sunland-Tujunga area that serves the East Valley, which has a higher demand, although the number of officers may be reduced.

The West Valley will not be the only area affected: Papa has said there will be no service west of the San Diego Freeway, south of the Artesia Freeway or east of the San Gabriel River Freeway.

“The LAPD has said they will respond and now we’ll find out,” Papa said. “They would respond to a violent incident, I’m sure. The question is, will they respond to a fare dispute, a drunk on board a bus--I don’t know.”

Mayor Richard Riordan was among those who supported delaying consideration of the Alatorre proposal, saying he wanted more information about the best allocation of police resources.